(I’m not a fan of stereotypes but for the sake of my next sentence I’ll put that aside) Being the millennial that I am, I am not a “news junkie”. However this past week there is one particular news story that has my full attention, and I’ll get to that in a minute.
When I say “news junkie” I mean you’ll never catch me watching the local news– not because I don’t want to be informed but because if I’m honest with you the newscast is so often filled with hopelessness and despair. Don’t get me wrong, this world is messed up with a capital M– there are wars, murders, bankruptcies, and more injustice than we can even imagine and I hate that. But living alongside all the fallen things of this world are also really beautiful things. There are thousands of companies and groups changing our world for the better, there are beautiful sights to see, and inspiring people to meet and that barely even grazes the surface of all the wonderful things our present world has to offer.
As a whole, humanity these days focuses much more on how this world is falling to pieces rather than how we can rally together to make this place look as much like Heaven as we can before we leave. I don’t like that. I’m not a huge believer in counting down the days until we get to physically be with Jesus in Heaven where everything is right and pure, don’t get me wrong– I do want that. But. God didn’t create us so that we could disregard this spinning sphere that we live on as some sort of wasteland where we are all stuck in darkness, despair, and destruction. He created us so that we could bring hope to hopeless things and a light to the dark things. Thats how I want to live my days here, thats what I’m a believer in– living my days on this Earth spiritually being with Jesus in a way that radiates Him to my surroundings. Despite what we see and what we hear, this world isn’t all bad, we just have to choose to see and to seek the good. Because there is someone higher, someone more powerful, someone who loves us wildly working in ways that we cannot see, and He isn’t a God of despair, confusion, or destruction. He is THE God of hope, THE revealer of mysteries, THE God of life.
That news story I mentioned earlier, the one I can’t stop thinking about– is the M.I.A. Boeing 777 that left Malaysia Beijing bound on March 8th, 2014. When I tell you that I can’t stop thinking about it I mean I’ve literally read 97% of the articles that have been written about it, I have CNN updates pinging my phone, and I can tell you how many passengers were on the plane, how many countries they represented, all the theories thus far, and the ages of the pilots and how many flight hours they each had under their belt. It blows my mind that a huge aircraft full of people could just disappear.
I can’t stop thinking what I would be doing if someone I loved had been on that flight. I do not do well with unknown things. So the thought of not knowing where someone was or if they were alive numbs me to my core. But what I have to make myself come back to every time I struggle with the unknown (which is more times than I care to admit) is that Jesus knows. HE KNOWS. He does. He is the revealer of mysteries. So whether I am wondering about something as trivial as where I’m going to live when my lease is up or something as serious as where is a Boeing 777 full of people I can rest in that truth. I do not know but He does. I can’t see but He can.
I feel for the passengers’ families, I can’t even imagine what they must be going through or how hopeless they must feel. I feel for the passengers who probably fearlessly boarded the plane excited to reach their destination, to see familiar faces, to go home. I feel for the crew whose goal is to care for their passengers. I feel for the 5 people who checked in for the flight but never boarded it and all the emotions they are feeling. I feel for the airline company, for the group of men and women currently searching around the clock for this missing aircraft and for everyone effected in even the smallest sense by this current event. We can’t change the reality but we can remind each other of hope, of truth, and of Jesus’ love. I don’t have the opportunity to speak to those effected but if I did I hope I would be brave enough to tell them something like this…
To the passengers: I don’t know what your purpose was boarding the flight, I don’t know if you were flying for leisure or for work, whether you were a frequent flyer or a first time flyer, whether you were flying alone or with a group. What I can probably imagine is at some point during your journey and maybe even right now at this very moment you are afraid. I pray that in your fear you are comforted that you feel the arms of your Creator around you, I pray you don’t feel alone and that you have an immense sense of peace. You have not been forgotten about, their our a number of people searching for you and a million more waiting, silently hoping for, and thinking of you.
To the loved ones of the passengers: I can’t even imagine what you must be feeling. Anger. Fear. Helplessness. Sadness. I pray for peace for you, that somehow in even the smallest way that you find peace. I pray that you look to Jesus and find rest. I pray for clarity and for answers. I encourage you to find community in the group of others walking beside you in the horrible situation, I pray that you lift each other up. I believe that love is a strong enough to force to communicate with out words, your loved ones know they are loved, just as you know you are loved by them. Love transcends all things, even though you have unanswered questions, cling to what you know is true– the love you have for them and the love that Jesus has for you both.
To the crew: I don’t know how your day started, if this was your first flight or your 100th, but I know that like the passengers, at some point during your journey you probably felt scared, maybe even know you are still experiencing that fear and I pray that you will feel comforted. I pray that you will feel the embrace of your Heavenly father holding you and telling you that He is with you.
To the 5 people who checked in but didn’t fly: I don’t know your story, I don’t know if you over slept, you got stuck in traffic, or if you weren’t feeling well, whatever the reason you missed your flight I pray peace over you. I pray over any emotion that you may be feeling, rest in Jesus.
To the search and rescue crew: I think you are so brave. I pray strength over you. I pray that your minds are quick, that your eyes stay open, and that your bodies stay strong. You aren’t alone, you have legions of angels looking over you and fighting alongside you, stand firm in what you are doing. You have a great purpose in this story.
To all the on-lookers like myself and most of us: Let’s lift up these people, they are our brothers and our sisters and we have a duty as believers and as humans to fight for them. Let’s not dismiss this as some freak accident that doesn’t involve us, lets pray for them, lets think about them, lets show the world what community looks like.
At the end of the day we must remember that yes, we do in fact live in a very fallen world where unexplainable things like missing aircrafts happen but that does not mean we are not loved by our Creator or that He is punishing us. He didn’t intend for us to live this way, centuries ago in a beautiful garden full of knowledge we chose this. Now, our lives look differently than God intended them to look but that doesn’t mean he has forsaken us. He is still at work. He is turning evil back into good. He is raising beauty up from destruction. He did not intend for this to happen but He won’t let it all be for nothing, He will use it for good in some capacity. Let’s not forget that.
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20
“Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” – Matthew 26:53
“…but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.” – Daniel 2:28
Ramblings: A little of this & A little of that. 